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DEPT.  OF  ECONOMICS 


E   L   I   E   F 

A  PRIMER 

THE  FAMILY  REHABILITA- 
flON  WORK   OF  TH£    BIJFFALC' 

:HARITY    ORGANIZATION 

SOCIETY  PREPARED  BY  ITS 

SECRETARY 

FREDERIC  ALMY 


REPRINTED    BY 

[IE   CHARITY   ORGANIZATION    DEPARTMENT 

OF  THE  RUSSELL  SAGE  FOUNDATION 

NEW   YORK 

I9IO 


.,.,::       //X£r 


CONTENTS 


No  MALE  SUPPORT: 

Widows, 9 

Deserted  Wives,      .      .      .      .  12 

Shiftless  Husbands,      ...  14 

Unemployment,       .      .      .      .  16 
DISABILITY: 

Sickness, 17 

Handicaps, 19 

Old  Age,       ......  19 

CHILDREN, 21 

VOLUNTEER  VISITORS,   ....  23 
THE  CHURCHES,  .     .     .     .     .     .24 

CITY  AID, 25 

NEW  APPLICATIONS,      ....  27 

PENSIONS  AND  BUDGETS,    ...  27 

LOANS, 32 

PAUPERIZING, 32 

PREVENTION, 55 


PREFACE 

THIS  little  Primer  was  originally 
written    for    the   Chanty  Or- 
ganization Society  of  Buffalo, 
and  some  of  its  paragraphs  do 
not  represent  the  methods  in  use  in  other 
cities.     Experts  differ  as  to  principles 
of  relief,  and  there  are  statements  in 
this  pamphlet  which  are  not  universally 
accepted,  but  probably  no  one  could 
draw  up  a  brief  treatise  on  this  subject 
which  would  be  universally  acceptable. 
The  Primer  is  suggestive,   but  in  no 
sense  authoritative. 

Nevertheless,  there  is  so  much  con- 
fusion in  the  minds  of  many  that  some 
outline  of  principles  is  needed.  There 
are  experienced  workers,  for  instance, 
who  have  no  conception  of  the  differ- 
ence of  treatment  for  widows  and  for 
deserted  wives.  Slight  as  this  pamphlet 
is,  it  may  stimulate  thought,  and  help  in 
cases  of  doubt.  F.  A. 


SOME  GENERAL  PRINCIPLES 
OF   RELIEF 


THIS  statement  of  some  general 
principles  with  regard  to  relief 
is  printed  with  great  diffi- 
dence. Modern  charity  has 
its  rules,  but  all  its  rules  are  made 
to  be  broken  on  occasion.  In  families 
that  need  help  there  is  apt  to  be  a 
complication  of  disorders,  and  one 
principle  of  relief  will  get  in  the  way 
of  another.  A  brief  primer  like  this 
may  be  as  dangerous  or  as  misleading  to 
an  amateur  as  handbooks  like  "Every 
Man  His  Own  Lawyer,"  or  "Every 
Man  His  Own  Doctor."  Neverthe- 
less, if  used  with  caution  it  should  be 
useful.  A  committee  making  decisions 
about  families  in  distress  must  never 
forget  that  it  is  dealing  with  human 
lives,  and  that  human  beings  cannot 
be  moved  about  like  chess  pieces.  For 


one  th'ng,  they  will  not  stay  put;  and 
unlike  chess  men,  they  have  ideas  of 
their  own,  which  are  often  better  than 
those  of  the  committee. 

A  family  must  often  be  given  time 
before  coming  to  even  a  wise  decision, 
such  as  going  to  a  hospital,  or  moving  to 
cheaper  rooms,  or  giving  up  a  losing 
business.  In  other  words,  interim  re- 
lief, as  it  is  called,  must  be  given  while 
inquiry  is  being  made  and  a  plan  is 
forming,  and  even,  in  some  instances, 
while  the  family  is  coming  to  a  wise 
plan.  It  takes  long  patience  to  deal 
with  balky  families.  The  best  success  is 
apt  to  come  when  the  family  can  be 
made  to  consider  your  plan  its  own. 
Interim  relief  should  not,  however,  be 
allowed  to  delay  constructive  action 
unduly. 

Remember  also  that  in  a  charity  or- 
ganization society  there  is  never  any 
such  thing  as  an  unworthy  family, 
though  some  cannot  be  helped  wisely 
with  material  relief.  The  word  un- 
worthy is  uncharitable. 

A  few  general  principles  follow: 


NO  MALE  SUPPORT 

(a)  WIDOWS 

WIDOWS  should  be  helped 
on  a  different  basis  from 
deserted  wives,  or  wives 
with  shiftless  husbands. 
Widowhood  will  not  increase  on  account 
of  unwise  charity,  though  wife  desertion 
may,  and  so  may  neglect  of  widows  by 
relatives.  Help  widows  with  both 
hands;  deserted  wives  with  one  hand; 
wives  with  able-bodied  husbands  with 
neither.  If  you  help  a  widow,  make  the 
pension  for  six  months  or  for  a  year  at  a 
time,  and  do  not  leave  her  to  worry  her- 
self sick  each  month  with  fear  for  the 
next  month.  Of  course,  as  the  children 
grow  to  earning  age,  the  pension  will 
gradually  decrease. 

It  is  a  mighty  poor  hen  that  cannot 
scratch  for  one  chicken;  but  a  widow 
with  several  children  will  need  help  to 
keep  the  family  together.  It  is  ele- 
mentary that  a  home  should  never  be 
broken  up  on  account  of  poverty  only. 
This  should  be  done  for  immorality,  or 
perhaps  for  cruelty  and  abuse,  or  even 
where  the  parents  are  too  weak  and 


shiftless  to  make  a  safe  home  for  the 
children.  Sometimes,  also,  a  home  must 
be  broken  up  temporarily  while  a 
mother  goes  to  the  hospital  or  is  dis- 
abled at  home,  or  because  of  a  conta- 
gious disease,  but  no  family,  no  matter 
how  large  or  what  the  cost,  should  be 
broken  up  on  account  of  poverty  only. 
The  home  is  the  best  place  for  the  child 
if  it  is  a  good  home,  and  this  Society  has 
taken  the  position  that  no  mother,  mere- 
ly because  of  poverty,  shall  be  deprived 
of  the  care  and  custody  of -her  child. 

Conversely,  the  Society  takes  the 
position  that  no  child,  merely  because 
of  poverty,  shall  be  deprived  of  the  care 
and  custody  of  its  mother.  It  has  been 
well  said  that  there  is  no  greater  cruelty 
than  to  compel  a  widow  to  neglect  her 
children  in  order  to  support  them,  and 
the  mother  of  a  large  family  who  is  a 
breadwinner  cannot  be  also  a  good 
home-maker.  If  the  children  are  cared 
for  by  a  child,  who  is  often  kept  home 
from  school  for  the  purpose,  they  are  apt 
to  be  ill-fed  and  to  run  the  streets,  and 
the  reformatories  and  charitable  soci- 
eties pay  the  bill  in  the  next  generation. 
A  mother  with  little  children  can  use  the 
day  nurseries,  but  where  this  is  imprac- 
10 


ticable,  the  mother  should  stay  at  home, 
and  the  rule  of  this  Society  is  to  deny  aid 
unless  she  does  so.  The  day  nurseries 
should  be  used  as  much  as  possible,  and 
work  in  the  home  should  be  used  also. 
Relatives  or  neighbors  can  sometimes 
care  for  the  children,  and  sometimes  we 
can  dovetail  two  families  and  have  a 
dependent  woman  of  one  family  come 
daily  to  care  for  the  children  of  another, 
so  that  one  family  will  be  relieved  with 
work  instead  of  two  with  alms. 

It  is  well,  however,  to  remember  that 
the  mother's  industry  and  self-sacrifice 
is  a  good  object  lesson  for  the  children. 
In  short,  the  mother  should  have  the 
opportunity  to  earn  as  much  as  she  can 
without  injury  to  her  family,  but  should 
never  be  allowed  to  let  the  children  get 
their  own  meals,  get  themselves  to 
school,  and  roam  at  will  after  school 
hours.  Relief  is  cheaper  in  the  end. 
The  results  of  unwise  charity  would  ap- 
pall us  if  seen. 

The  Society  goes  into  psychology  and 
tries  to  estimate  the  comparative  value 
of  mothers.  If  a  mother  is  slatternly 
and  keeps  a  poor  home,  the  Society 
will  not  pay  out  much  money  to  keep 
her  there.  But  a  good,  busy  mother 
ii 


should  not  be  allowed  to  work  herself  to 
death  until  "instead  of  six  children  she 
has  six  orphans/1 

Widowers  do  not  fit  under  the  title 
"No  male  support,"  but  are  most  con- 
veniently considered  with  widows.  Un- 
less relatives  can  come  in  to  care  for  the 
children,  it  is  usually  necessary  for  the 
father  to  place  his  children  in  an  asy- 
lum, and  he  should  pay  the  bill. 

NO  MALE  SUPPORT 

(b)  DESERTED   WIVES 

NEARLY  one-tenth  of  the  families 
dealt  with  by  this  Society  are 
those  of  deserted  wives.     The 
evil  has  grown  so  serious  that 
men  drop  their  families  upon  charity 
with  confidence  whenever   there  is  a 
fresh  baby  or  a  family  jar,  and  return 
when  convenient.     The  "  intermittent 
husband"  is  one  of  our  chief  problems. 
We  have  many  families  who  have  been 
deserted  half  a  dozen  times. 

Until  1905  wife  desertion  was  not 
even  a  misdemeanor  in  New  York.  It 
was  merely  disorderly  conduct,  like 
stealing  a  dog.  It  is  now  by  state  law  a 
felony,  punishable  by  two  years'  im- 

12 


prisonment.  (The  law  in  other  states 
varies,  but  is  easily  ascertainable.) 
We  do  not  help  a  deserted  wife  until  she 
swears  out  a  warrant  for  the  arrest  of 
her  husband,  and  our  city  overseer  of 
the  poor  follows  the  same  rule.  We 
have  brought  home  for  punishment  from 
California  and  Texas  worthless  husbands 
who  were  not  worth  the  cost  of  trans- 
portation, for  the  sake  of  the  example. 
Probation  of  the  man  in  the  home  on 
good  behavior,  supporting  the  family, 
should  usually  precede  imprisonment. 
It  is  cheaper  and  better.  Sometimes  the 
wife  tries  to  reject  a  disagreeable  hus- 
band after  his  return  and  wants  to  live 
on  our  charity  instead. 

It  will  not  do  to  help  a  wife  merely 
because  she  says  she  is  deserted.  The 
husband  is  often  around  the  corner. 

Second  or  third  desertions  have  a 
different  rule  of  treatment.  Where  a 
wife  has  been  deserted,  has  been  aided, 
has  taken  her  man  back,  and  has  been 
deserted  again,  the  rule  is  to  give  no  aid 
to  keep  the  family  together.  She  should 
be  told  this  when  aided  the  first  time. 
A  breaking  up  of  the  family  for  even  a 
few  weeks  will  often  bring  the  husband 
back  to  his  burden,  and  show  him  that 


charity  mean-s  business,  besides  having 
a  remarkably  deterrent  effect  on  other 
intending  deserters.  Many  weak  men 
love  their  children  and  would  not  desert 
them  if  no  help  were  near. 

All  charity  rules  have  their  excep- 
tions, and  each  family  problem  must  be 
dealt  with  individually.  The  deserted 
wife  problem  is  only  less  difficult  than 
that  of  the  wife  with  a  shiftless  husband. 

NO   MALE  SUPPORT 

(c)     SHIFTLESS    HUSBANDS 

THIS  problem  is  almost  insoluble. 
It  includes,  of  course,  the  in- 
temperate husband.  The  ordi- 
nary rule  is  for  the  wife  to  have 
the  husband  sent  up  for  non-support, 
but  with  a  timid  wife  and  a  beast  of  a  hus- 
band this  is  not  easily  arranged.  Proba- 
tion on  good  behavior  under  promise  to 
support  the  family  is  better  than  im- 
prisonment with  its  stigma  and  waste, 
if  the  probation  officer  is  a  good  one  and 
makes  the  probation  mean  something. 
Drunkards  who  promise  to  do  better 
may  often  be  helped  by  medical  advice, 
by  church  connections,  or  by  enlarging 
their  recreational  opportunities. 

14 


Cruel  as  it  seems,  it  is  seldom  wise 
to  put  material  relief  into  a  family 
where  there  is  an  able-bodied  man. 
Money  given  to  a  drunkard  does  not 
feed  him  but  his  drunkenness.  Money 
given  to  an  idler  or  a  spendthrift  feeds 
the  idleness  and  the  improvidence.  It 
is  a  wise  rule  that  the  wives  and  chil- 
dren of  such  marriages  must  suffer,  and 
it  is  not  well  to  interfere  lightly  with 
the  divine  taws  of  providence.  To  do 
so  is  to  assume  a  very  grave  responsi- 
bility. 

Nevertheless  extreme  suffering  must 
be  averted,  and  food  and  clothes,  not 
money,  can  sometimes  be  given  in  such 
a  family,  but  it  should  be  bread-and- 
water  relief,  disciplinary  relief,  so  to 
speak,  and  of  the  shortest  duration.  It 
is  certainly  permissible  to  give  the  chil- 
dren clothing  if  doing  this  really  insures 
regular  school  attendance. 

One  trouble  is  that  husbands  are  not 
bad  or  good  all  the  time.  The  man  does 
not  absolutely  refuse  to  support  his 
family,  but  supports  it  three  days  out 
of  four;  or  half  supports  it  all  the  time. 
Often  he  is  "sick";  or  is  looking  for 
work  which  he  does  not  want  to  find.  He 
would  rather  work  others  than  himself. 

15 


Any  large  charity  organization  so- 
ciety has  problems  daily  that  would  tax 
the  wisdom  of  Solomon  and  the  patience 
of  Job. 

NO  MALE  SUPPORT 

(d)    UNEMPLOYMENT 

UNEMPLOYMENT    is    fortu- 
nately   a    vanishing   problem 
at    the   present    time   (1910) 
for    the    industrial    situation 
is   fast   becoming   normal.     Ordinarily 
the  Society  gives  no  aid  to  the  families 
of    able-bodied    men    except    through 
work,  but  during  the  last  two  winters 
it  could  not  find  work.  Artificial  relief 
work,  or  "made  work, "  was  disapproved 
of  as  humiliating  and  wasteful,  but  a 
few  men  were  tested  out  with  legitimate 
work  at  a  fair  wage  for  which  they  were 
paid  ostensibly  by  the   employer,  but 
really  by  the  Society,  which  furnished 
employers  with  a  little  free  labor,  not 
of  the  best  quality.  The  men  did  not 
know  they  were  being  tested.     When 
any  considerable  quantity  of  work  was 
found,  it  was  divided  among  as  many 
families  as  possible  in  lieu  of  relief. 
When  material  relief  was  given  it  was 
16 


intentionally  meager,  partly  from  finan- 
cial necessity  and  partly  in  order  not  to 
delay  the  return  to  employment  by 
giving  the  comfortable  relief  which  dis- 
abled families  receive. 

Various  men  of  influence  gave  a  spe- 
cial agent  of  the  Society  letters  of  in- 
troduction to  employers,  with  which  he 
canvassed  for  jobs. 

The  Society  endeavored  to  make  such 
able-bodied  relief  educational.  Some 
effort  was  made  to  have  men  attend 
night  schools  where  English  was  taught, 
or  manual  training  schools,  as  a  condi- 
tion of  the  relief.  Similar  efforts  were 
made  with  some  of  the  women. 

DISABILITY 

(a)  SICKNESS 

IN  case  of  sickness  it  is  obvious  that 
after  all  proper  sources  of  aid  from 
relatives,  lodges,  etc.,  have  been  ex- 
ploited the  Society  should  give  ade- 
quate relief,  and  this  means  that  every 
effort  should  be  made  to  effect  a  cure, 
even  if  the  cost  is  large.    When  a  hos- 
pital  is   essential    and   the   patient   is 
balky,  patience  should  be  shown    and 
interim  relief  may  in  some  cases  be  given 


while  the  patient  is  being  persuaded,  but 
all  relief  should  sometimes  be  denied,  in 
exceptional  cases,  to  compel  treatment 
which  is  unquestionably  necessary. 

It  is  important  to  know  as  definitely 
as  possible  how  long  the  sickness  may 
endure.  Where  the  sickness  is  inter- 
mittent, or  only  partially  disabling,  it 
is  important  to  keep  in  close  touch  with 
the  physician  and  know  just  how  much 
work  can  properly  be  required.  It  is 
as  wrong  to  let  a  willing  sick  man  work 
who  should  not,  as  to  compel  an  unwill- 
ing sick  man  to  work  when  he  should 
not.  The  volunteer  physician  and  the 
district  committee  can  often  question 
the  city  poor  physician  or  the  family 
physician  on  this  point  more  success- 
fully than  the  district  visitor  can. 

Nothing  is  said  here  in  regard  to 
tuberculosis,  the  treatment  of  which  is 
now  being  pretty  fully  presented  to  the 
public.  It  may  be  said,  however,  in 
regard  to  relief,  that  where  the  father 
is  able  to  pay  but  unwilling,  the  Society 
will  buy  a  cot,  a  tent,  or  a  reclining 
chair  for  a  tuberculous  child  when  it 
would  not  think  of  buying  food  or 
clothes,  for  the  reason  that  the  disease 
is  contagious  and  a  social  menace.  Each 
18 


advanced  case  of  tuberculosis  breeds  at 
least  five  more. 

DISABILITY 

(b)    HANDICAPS 

FOR  the  blind,  for  the  crippled,  for 
the  partially  disabled,occupation 
supplemented  by  relief  if  neces- 
sary is  a  kinder  gift  than  relief 
outright.    An  artificial  leg,  or  education 
for  a  suitable  employment,  may  cost-  a 
large  sum  and  yet  be  cheaper  in  the  end 
than  continuous  support.     Peddling  is 
a  most  undesirable  occupation  for  handi- 
capped men,  and  usually  ends  in  mere 
begging. 

DISABILITY 

(c)    OLD  AGE 

THE  chief  danger  with  old  age  is 
that  charity   will  relieve  chil- 
dren from  their  proper  burden. 
We  know  how  much  easier  it  is 
for  one  mother  to  support  six  children 
than  for  six  children  to   support  one 
mother.    The  Society  has  several  times 
sued  children  to  compel  support,  and 
has  shamed  many  more  into  support 
by  threatening  suit. 
19 


The  county  almshouse  is  a  comfort- 
able and  suitable  home  for  shiftless,  im- 
provident old  age,  or  for  dissolute  old 
age  which  has  earned  this  bed  and  should 
die  on  it. 

The  private  Home  has  dangers  for 
the  reason  that  it  does  not  bring  rela- 
tives out  from  cover  as  the  threat  of 
the  almshouse  will.  Moreover,  most  pri- 
vate Homes  have  a  waiting  list  and 
an  entrance  fee  of  $250  or  more  which 
must  be  raised;  but  nothing  worse  than 
the  private  Home  should  be  considered 
for  self-respecting  old  people  of  the  bet- 
ter sort,  whether  the  relatives  will  help 
or  not.  Sometimes  the  county  poor 
officer  will  commit  to  a  private  Home  on 
a  weekly  payment. 

Often  it  is  best  to  keep  an  old  man 
or  woman  to  the  end  in  the  home  in 
which  many  years  have  been  spent.  Any 
institution,  either  public  or  private, 
usually  separates  an  old  couple.  We 
need  more  institutions  where  old  people 
can  be  kept  together.  When  relatives 
will  take  care  of  old  people,  but  without 
kindness,  it  is  unkind  to  insist  always  on 
such  support.  A  hard  child-in-law  can 
be  very  hard.  So  can  own  sons  and 
daughters,  but  reconciliations  of  dis- 

20 


affected  children  are  often  accomplished. 
In  fact,  family  reconciliations  are  a  part 
of  the  trade  of  a  charity  organization 
visitor.  Good  relatives  in  other  cities 
are  often  willing  to  give  a  home,  but  it  is 
not  always  well  to  transplant  an  old 
tree. 

CHILDREN 

A"  I  ^HE  treatment  of  children  is 
almost  the  whole  of  charity, 
and  yet  only  the  barest  out- 
line can  be  sketched  here. 
One  of  the  commonest  mistakes  is  to 
suppose  that  the  welfare  of  children  can 
be  separated  from  that  of  the  rest  of  the 
family.  There  must  be  separate  treat- 
ment for  all  of  the  family  group  who  re- 
quire it,  and  adults  are  not  hopeless. 
The  best  of  all  gifts  to  children  is  op- 
portunity,— for  pure  air,  pure  milk,  pure 
water;  for  health,  education,  and  mor- 
ality. We  use  constantly  the  settle- 
ments, the  playgrounds,  the  juvenile 
court  and  probation,  the  child  labor 
laws,  the  truancy  force,  the  schools  and 
libraries.  The  over-worked,  underfed 
child  makes  the  spent  man. 

A  reformatory  for  difficult  children 
is  a  last  resort,  too  often  used.     Even 

21 


the  George  Junior  Republic,  so  invalu- 
able to  Buffalo,  involves  association 
with  offenders.  Home  under  probation 
through  the  juvenile  court  should  be 
tried  out  first. 

We  should  seek  to  obtain  medical 
inspection  of  all  of  our  children  in  order 
to  remove  physical  defects  which  would 
handicap  them  in  later  life  and  lessen 
their  earning  power.  A  diagnosis  for 
incipient  tuberculosis  is  always  asked 
for  where  there  has  been  exposure. 

The  Society  conditions  all  its  pension 
relief  on  absolutely  regular  school  at- 
tendance by  the  children.  If  the  weekly 
school  report  from  the  public  or  paro- 
chial school  shows  slack  attendance, 
unexcused,  the  pinch  of  hunger  the  fol- 
lowing week  is  voluntary.  It  is  not 
an  unkind  or  humiliating  condition  of 
aid.  The  committees  of  the  Society  do 
not  enforce  this  policy  sufficiently.  We 
find  it  necessary  to  warn  the  teachers 
with  every  request  for  school  reports 
that  they  must  not  disclose  their  knowl- 
edge of  the  situation  either  to  the  child 
or  to  its  schoolmates. 

A  father  who  does  not  make  his  child 
go  regularly  to  school  can  be  fined  five 
dollars  for  the  first  offense,  and  fifty 
22 


dollars  for  the  second,  and  Judge  Nash 
has  been  good  about  enforcing  this. 
There  are  similar  provisions  in  other" 
states  besides  New  York. 

Under  a  new  law  passed  in  1910,  par- 
ents are  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
juvenile  court  in  Buffalo,  and  can  be 
punished  in  that  court  for  the  offenses 
of  their  children. 

If  a  shiftless  father  will  not  provide 
fit  shoes  and  clothes  for  a  child  to  wear 
to  school,  both  moral  and  legal  coercion 
should  be  brought  to  bear,  but  in  addi- 
tion to  this  the  child  should  be  got  to 
school,  and,  where  necessary,  clothes 
should  be  provided. 

By  all  means  observe  the  child  labor 
laws.  Relief  for  the  mother  is  always 
better  than  child  labor. 

VOLUNTEER  VISITORS 

VOLUNTEER    friendly    visitors 
are  a  cardinal  part  of  our  work, 
but  a  discussion  of  their  finding 
and  guidance  is  not  pertinent 
to  this  article  on  relief. 

The  relation  of  friendly  visitor  is  not 
one  to  be  lightly  entered  into.  It  is  not 
for  a  temporary  crisis,  but  involves  con- 

23 


tinuous  oversight,  perhaps  for  a  long 
time,  by  the  same  visitor.  The  Society 
stands  for  the  principle  of  individual 
visitors,  and  a  pastor  or  church  worker 
who  visits  a  group  of  families  is  not 
rated  as  a  friendly  visitor  by  this  Soci- 
ety. No  one  visitor  should  be  given  more 
than  two  or  at  the  very  most  four  fam- 
ilies, and  each  family  should  be  seen  at 
least  once  a  fortnight  in  the  earlier 
stages  of  acquaintance. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  volunteer 
friendly  visitors  will  lighten  the  work 
of  the  paid  visitors  of  the  Society.  On 
the  contrary,  they  increase  it,  but  the 
results  may  be  well  worth  the  cost. 
Volunteer  visitors  unguided  are  very 
likely  to  do  more  harm  than  good. 

THE   CHURCHES 

THE  churches,  even  in  Buffalo, 
are  not  used  as  they  should 
be,  but  they  are  not  under- 
valued. 

Faults  of  character  are  largely  the 
cause  of  poverty,  and  the  church  is  the 
chief  agent  for  building  character.  In 
trying  to  lift  delinquent  families  to  a 
better  life  we  should  use  continually  the 
influence  of  the  priest  or  pastor,  and  of 
24 


the  church  connection,  although  like 
the  public  schools  we  cannot  ourselves 
teach  religion. 

CITY  AID 

THIS  Society  has  always  taken 
the  position  that  municipal  re- 
lief should  be  given  in  institu- 
tions only,  and  that  outdoor 
relief,  or  relief  to  the  poor  in  their  homes, 
should  be  left  to  private  charity.  This 
is  partly  because  indoor  or  institutional 
relief  is  less  open  to  fraudulent  use,  but 
more  because  of  the  attitude  of  the 
poor  towards  public  relief.  They  have 
a  feeling  of  right  to  it,  and  fling  them- 
selves upon  it  without  thrift.  New  York, 
Brooklyn,  and  Philadelphia  abolished 
public  outdoor  relief  long  ago,  and 
Washington,  San  Francisco,  St.  Louis, 
and  other  large  cities  have  practically 
never  had  it. 

In  1877,  when  this  Society  was 
formed,  it  began  a  crusade  against  city 
outdoor  relief,  which  reduced  it  in  three 
years  from  $100,636  to  $28,295  per 
annum.  In  1898  it  began  another  cru- 
sade which  reduced  it  in  three  years 
from  $104,107  to  $38,851  per  annum. 
In  1 908- 1 909^  even  with  the  great  indus- 

25 


trial  depression,  the  amount  was  only 
$47,547.  All  this  aid,  since  1877,  has 
been  investigated  by  the  Society  as  well 
as  by  the  city,  and  approved  or  disap- 
proved by  the  committees  of  the  Soci- 
ety, and  when  disapproved  it  has  sel- 
dom been  continued.  The  saving  to 
taxpayers  through  this  work  has  been 
enormous. 

Even  so  purged  and  checked  the  So- 
ciety disapproves  of  city  aid.  The 
stigma  and  humiliation  of  city  aid, 
though  often  salutary,  are  as  often  hurt- 
ful. Moreover,  the  city  aid  is  given 
with  no  constructive  plan,  and  with  no 
follow-up  work,  such  as  this  Society 
relies  on  to  lift  families  out  of  their  pov- 
erty instead  of  tiding  them  over  into 
next  week's  misery.  There  is  nothing 
of  which  we  are  so  proud  as  that  in 
part  through  our  work,  there  were 
fewer  dependent  families  in  Buffalo 
in  1907  than  there  were  thirty  years  be- 
fore, in  1877,  when  the  city  was  only 
one-third  as  large. 

Since  city  aid  exists,  the  Society  uses 
it  as  follows:  It  asks  the  overseer  of 
the  poor  to  send  to  it  for  relief  all  first 
applications  where  aid  is  likely  to  be 
temporary;  or  where  there  are  children 
26 


of  an  age  to  take  notice;  or  where  there 
is  an  able-bodied  man  in  the  family;  or 
where  there  are  young  couples.  If  the 
aid  is  continuous,  or  the  family  has  been 
for  some  time  on  the  poor  books  so  that 
the  habit  has  been  formed,  the  Society 
seldom  seeks  to  substitute  its  aid  for 
the  city  aid.  On  the  other  hand,  if  a 
family  comes  first  to  us,  or  is  sent  by 
the  city  to  us,  we  very  seldom  seek  to 
place  it  on  the  city  even  if  the  aid  is 
continuous  and  heavy. 

NEW  APPLICATIONS 

WITH  all  new  or  recurrent 
applications   for   aid   two 
points  which  are  too  often 
forgotten    should    always 
be  passed  on  by  our  committees: 

1.  Shall  a  weekly  record  of  the  chil- 
dren's school  attendance  be  obtained? 

2.  Is  a  friendly  visitor  needed? 

PENSIONS  AND  BUDGETS 

WE  divide  our  relief  into  tem- 
porary relief,  which  does 
not  seem  likely  to  continue 
longer  than  three  months, 
and  pension  relief,  which  seems  likely  to 
continue  three  months  or  more. 
27 


With  pension  relief  there  should  al- 
ways be: 

1 .  A  good  friendly  visitor  if  possible. 

2.  A  weekly  report  of  the  school  at- 
tendance of  all  the  children. 

3.  A  medical  examination  of  all  the 
children  for  physical  defects  (of  seeing, 
hearing,  breathing,  etc.)  or  for  incipient 
tuberculosis.    We   do   not   intend    to 
spend  perfectly  good  money  in  bringing 
up  imperfect  children  when  perhaps  a 
slight  operation   would   remove  their 
handicap   and  give  them  full  earning 
power. 

4.  A    budget,    including    standard 
food  cost. 

This  budget,  with  standard  food  cost, 
should  always  be  figured  out  in  advance, 
if  pension  relief  seems  probable,  in  order 
to  save  the  time  of  the  committee.  It 
should  be  reviewed,  of  course,  by  the 
committee,  and  should  always  be  en- 
tered on  the  face  card.  In  figuring  a 
budget  the  district  visitor  should  con- 
sult with  the  sub-committee  on  cases,  or 
with  the  secretaries  of  the  Society. 

A  budget  is  an  estimate  of  the  living 

cost  of  the  family  under  tolerably  decent 

conditions.     It  should  be  kept  clearly 

in  mind  that  the  budget  is  the  total  cost 

28 


of  living  without  any  reference  to  what 
the  family  is  earning,  or  receiving  from 
any  source. 

The  budget,  less  what  the  family 
earns,  or  rather  what  it  ought  to  earn, 
and  less  what  the  relatives  give  or  ought 
to  give,  is  the  measure  of  relief.  This  is  a 
very  simple  truth,  not  always  under- 
stood. 

It  is  customary  to  figure  the  budget 
by  adding  together  the  standard  food 
cost  per  week,  the  rent  per  week,  and 
estimate  for  coal  per  week,  without 
any  allowance  for  clothes  or  other  sun- 
dries. This  is  crude,  and  often  hard, 
but  it  is  the  highest  measure  of  relief 
which  this  Society  has  reached  as  a  gen- 
eral rule.  The  more  intelligent  district 
committees  of  the  Society  do  not  limit 
themselves  to  such  a  budget  by  rule  of 
thumb,  but  make  a  separate  study  of 
each  case.  A  very  rough  and  ready  way 
of  figuring  a  budget  is  to  estimate  what 
the  breadwinner  of  the  family  would 
earn  if  living  and  able-bodied,  and  call 
that,  minus  $1.50  a  week  for  his  food, 
the  budget. 

In  measuring  relief  after  the  budget 
has  been  estimated  it  is  very  often 
allowable  to  leave  some  margin  for  in- 
29 


visible  sources,  such  as  relatives  not 
brought  from  cover,  money  in  a  stock- 
ing, aid  from  neighbors,  unknown 
church  chanty,  etc. 

It  is  often  not  cruel  to  wait  a  while 
and  see  what  happens  if  the  aid  asked 
for  is  denied;  and  the  results  are  some- 
times surprising. 

The  budget  should  be  closely  watched 
for  changes.  One  member  of  the  family 
in  the  hospital  for  a  time  instead  of  at 
home  may  make  a  difference  of  a  dollar 
or  more  a  week. 

The  standard  food  cost  as  estimated 
for  Buffalo  in  1 908  after  a  study  of  many 
families  is  $1.50  per  week  per  man. 
The  cost  for  the  other  members  of  the 
family  is  figured  as  follows:  Woman,  .8 
as  much;  boy,  16  to  14  years,  .8;  girl,  16 
to  14  years,  .7;  child,  13  to  10  years,  .6; 
child,  9  to  6  years, .  5 ;  child,  5  to  2  years, 
.3;  infant,  .2.  Have  this  revised  at  the 
office  of  the  Society's  registrar,  to  pre- 
vent mistakes.  This  standard  food  cost 
is  suggestive  only,  but  the  Committee 
on  District  Work  voted  in  1908,  that  it 
should  always  be  entered  on  the  face 
card,  together  with  the  estimated  bud- 
get, where  relief  for  three  months  or 
more  seems  likely.  The  face  card 

30 


should  always  show  the  date  when  this 
computation  is  made.  However  supeiv 
ficial  this  food  cost  may  be,  it  is  based 
on  careful  study,  in  Buffalo,  and  is  better 
than  mere  guessing. 

Sometimes  the  standard  of  living  is  so 
low  (because  of  extreme  thrift,  or  low 
wages,  or  dissipation)  that  the  standard 
food  cost  as  stated  above  is  more  than 
the  family  or  its  neighbors  are  used  to. 
Give  a  Polish  family  an  American  pen- 
sion and  it  will  put  half  of  it  in  the  sav- 
ings bank.  In  such  cases  it  is  important 
to  remember  that  the  standard  of  living 
cannot  be  raised  by  mere  relief.  If  a 
family  is  to  be  aided  for  a  few  months 
only,  during  disability,  it  is  cruel  to  give 
adequate  rooms  and  food  and  then  leave 
the  family  to  its  old  resources.  But 
when  the  relief  will  last  a  year  at  least, 
so  that  a  definite  impress  can  be  made, 
it  pays  to  do  a  good  job  according  to 
normal  standards,  provided  always  that 
the  family  seems  to  be  of  good  type,  re- 
sponsive to  treatment.  Weeds  should 
not  have  the  same  culture  as  flowers. 

It  should  be  added  that  there  are 
many  who  disagree  with  the  principle 
of  the  preceding  paragraph,  and  are 
opposed  to  giving  a  pension  larger  in 


amount  than  the  ordinary  income  of  the 
neighbors. 

LOANS 

THE  relief  should  be  either  a  gift 
or  a  loan,  and  the  loan  should 
not  be  a  disguised  gift,  called 
so  in  order  to  save  the  feelings 
of   the  recipient.     The  Committee  on 
District  Work  voted  in   1909  that  all 
loans  by  the  Society  be  secured  by  a 
note  at  the  central  office,  and  collected 
if  possible  when  due,  unless  canceled 
or   extended   by    vote  of   the  district 
committee  which  made  the  loan. 

PAUPERIZING 

OUR  friends   will   please   take 
notice    that   as  yet  nothing 
has  been  said  of  the  fact  that 
pauperism   is  contagious,  or 
that  easy  aid  kills  character.    No  space 
will  be  given  here    to    these  texts  of 
thirty  years  ago,  though   they  are  as 
true  and  important  now  as  then.     The 
emphasis  of  modern  charity  is  laid  on 
constructive    relief.      As    Joseph     Lee 
says:    "Modern  charity  gives  more  in 
material  support  than  the  old,  and  it  is 

32 


entitled  to  do  so  by  its  knowledge  of 
where  material  support  can  help.  But 
it  places  the  accent  not  upon  the  mate- 
rial, but  upon  the  spiritual  side." 

PREVENTION 

THIS  paper  is  on  Relief,  but  it 
should  be  made  perfectly  plain 
before  closing    that    although 
modern  charity  emphasizes  re- 
lief, it  cares  far  less  for  relief  than  for 
cure,  and  far  less  for  cure  than  for  pre- 
vention.  Nothing  in  all  this  relief  work, 
beautiful  as  it  is,  so  fires  our  imagination 
or  seems  to  us  so  valuable  as  the  pre- 
ventive  work    which    strikes    at    the 
causes  of  poverty. 

To  abolish  poverty  we  must  attack 
disease,  ignorance,  vice  and  unjust  so- 
cial conditions.  To  meet  these  we  have 
many  weapons.  They  include  work  on 
tenements,  tuberculosis,  public  play- 
grounds and  baths,  reformatories,  pro- 
bation, juvenile  courts,  child  labor,  tru- 
ancy, manual  training,  pure  food,  safety 
devices,  industrial  legislation,  and  so  on 
through  a  long  and  blessed  list. 

Most  of  this  is  "community  work," 
as  we  call  it,  dealing  not  with  individuals, 
but  with  groups  and  classes,  and  re- 

33 


quiring  legislation  and  agitation.  The 
more  human  and  intimate  "case  work," 
with  individual  families,  is  like  the  Red 
Cross  work,  which  should  go  hand  in 
hand  with  an  effort  to  abolish  war. 
"Case  work"  is  an  indispensable  basis 
for  the  sympathy  and  knowledge  which 
alone  will  make  the  mass  work  either 
possible  or  valuable,  and,  moreover, 
case  work  must  always  supplement 
mass  work  at  every  turn. 

APOLOGY 

THESE    suggestions    have  been 
put  together  on  a  hurry  call, 
so  to  speak,  to  accompany  a 
report  on  the  standardization 
of  district  work  which  was  needed  for 
immediate    publication.     There   is   no 
other  brief  summary  of  the  questions 
here  touched  on,  so  far  as  the  writer 
knows.     It  should  be  of  service  to  the 
ten  district  committees  of  the  Buffalo 
Society,  but  the  expert   secretaries  of 
other  charity  organization  societies  may 
find  it  full  of  holes. 


34 


"  The  daily  work  in  a  charity  organi- 
zation office,  to  be  well  done,  demands : 

An  intelligence  that  shall  not 
slumber. 

An  earnestness  that  shall  not 
tire. 

A  patience  not  to  be  overcome. 

A  sympathy  that  will  not  suf- 
fer itself  to  be  chilled. 

And  none  know  better  than  those  of 
us  who  have  attempted  the  work  how 
miserably  easy  it  is  in  these  respects  to 
fail,  and  how  miserably  certain  we  aret 
when  we  fail,  to  err." 

EDWARD  T.  DEFINE. 


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WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
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-     •  .  ;o  taQR 


Wtfr 


Photomount 
Pamphlet 

Binder 
Gaylord  Bros. 

Makers 

Stockton,  Calif. 
PAT.  JAN.  21,  1908 


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